The Side Effects of Battle
by Uniasus
Summary: Starscream hated battles, because it usually meant he had to watch the two leaders get frisky.


**Disclaimer:** Transformers was used without permission so I can make a lot of money without paying royalties to Hasbro. Not really, the only thing I'm getting paid with is your reviews (so do you mind giving me one? Pwease?) and I'm pretty sure Hasbro knows that there are a lot of fan fictions about Transformers and that this is fair use. Why oh why am I taking a law class?

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He hated battles.

Do not get him wrong; he enjoyed using his null rays on his opponents. Seeing the results of his good aim and personalized weapons always did wonders for his ego. It was even more satisfying when he physically managed to take out an Autobot. They saw him as weak, tiny, and lithe without the power sufficient enough to win in a servo-to-servo fight. Ah, the shock on their faces when he knocked them over.

After which of course he always quickly flies away. In an honest to Primus fight he would lose, his form was not meant for that type of fighting. But they always underestimated him so he was able to get in one good shot, giving him enough time to laugh in the Autoscum's face before taking off and continuing to dish out harm from afar.

But knowing he was physically weaker than most of his opponents was not why he hated battles. He hated them because as second in command his main job was to make sure his commander was safe.

It was not like he wanted Megatron to be gravely injured in battle, he would much rather the gray mech win a battle for one. He hated battles because it meant he had to watch his leader and Prime-the-oh-so-superior tumble around over the terrain in a fairly good imitation of rough interfacing.

No one, and he meant no one_,_ should be able to do such a thing to his leader. Well, aside from himself. He had several such situations planned out and stored on his processor that he indulged in more frequently than from time to time. But to see and be duty bound to watch Megatron and Prime rolling around…

It was all he could do to not transform and fly away.

He tried to get his leader's attention since he had first noticed the way his spark reacted when he was in Megatron's presence, how it would expand and contract at the same time. Paperwork would be done on time and he anticipated requests and orders, but no matter how much he worked to help his boss out the grey mech did not acknowledge any of it. There was never any communication between the two of them, aside from orders. And even those were in short supply do to his ability to predict them.

So in an effort to make Megatron give him more attention, he started scheming. Plots were formed and attempt after attempt to overthrow Megatron were carried out. They all failed, as they were supposed to, but the amount of words that came out of Megatron's voice processor meant just for him increased tenfold. He could not stop and each new week brought a new plan. He did not care what the other Decepticons thought of him as long as he was getting some attention from their leader. That was all that mattered.

But what hurt the most was not that Megatron ignored his feelings, or even that maybe his leader was oblivious to them. It was that no matter what he did he would never have a chance; Megatron's spark pulsed for another.

Megatron had not admitted it to himself, and most likely never would. But after spending so much time with the one he liked he knew Megatron cursed Prime a little more than necessary, degraded him more times in a day then everyone in the entire Deception force together. There was even a hologram in his personal quarters that Megatron used for target practice.

The rest of the fraction never thought much of it, after all it was normal and natural for the heads of the two armies to be aggressive toward each other. But did Megatron really have to destroy a hologram projector every week? And several times a day he would be asked for his opinion of the semi, what was he planning, how could the Decepticons win one, how best could he defeat Prime? That was another thing he noticed, Megatron always called the other leader 'Prime', and always used 'Autobot' when referring to him. Not 'Autoscum' or 'Prime-rib' or any such names.

Bottom line, Optimus Prime was on Megatron's mind more often than Megatron was on his. And if that was not a big enough clue it was always the Decepticon that turned the battle between leaders from something decided by guns to something decided by servos.

Megatron wanted to be in close quarters with Optimal Slime, and he hated battles because he had to watch.

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**A/N: **Just a quick that popped into my head and intrupted my studing. Don't see why, the cyborg manifesto is fasinating, why would I want to write instead? XD Please forgive the shortness of this, it bugs me too. But I haven't really written anything lately (at least not for here) and felt like I should put _something_ up. And its still kinda odd how I write these pairings when their not my favorites, but my mind is always "Write this, write this!". I think I need to have a talk with myself. Why can't I write a BeexSam fic?!


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